Give them a break !

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Germanshepherdsmum

I said qualifications were a start, not inspections.
I also referred to inadequate reading skills, not inadequate education.
I’m perfectly well aware that Jay Blades is dyslexic but I’m sure you would agree that that isn’t the case with all kids who emerge from the education system with inadequate literacy or numeracy skills.

Actually the main drop in reading skills happens between the move from primary school and during the first year of secondary education when children whose reading skills still need support lose confidence and slip back. Many education authorities realised this was happening some time ago and actually introduced summer programmes and extra support during the first year of secondary school. Most of the schemes relied heavily on teaching assistants, many of whom have seen their jobs disappear and of course all schools are cutting costs, because funding isn't keeping up with expenses. I dread to think what will happen when schools get their latest fuel bills. The first strategies for intervention at this age happened in 2012 there was a report in 2018- before Covid of course. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/739722/literacy_and_numeracy_catch_up_strategies_amended_july-2018_amended_10.09.18.pdf

I said qualifications were a start, not inspections.
I also referred to inadequate reading skills, not inadequate education.
I’m perfectly well aware that Jay Blades is dyslexic but I’m sure you would agree that that isn’t the case with all kids who emerge from the education system with inadequate literacy or numeracy skills.

jot??? - not

Josieann - I take your point. But the model on which the targets are set is a narrow academic model - whether public or grammar school - and it is not appropriate to those children who can never aspire to meet those targets, but, and this is the most important thing, have many talents and assets that get ignored and leave them feeling worthless. Then .... prey to drug pushers, get into a pattern of unemployment and a life on benefits etc. We need to give teachers the time and space to nurture these children and develop what they CAN do, rather than making the teachers try and shovel them down an academic-based curriculum that is not appropriate to their needs. However hard teachers try to do right by them, they always know that they have OfSted looking over their shoulder.

I have nothing against public schools for the right children and for those parents who really believe that this is the right thing for their children. I just do jot want their curricula to be force fed to those in state education.

Germanshepherdsmum

I understand that trisher. But not all children with inadequate reading skills have ‘learning difficulties’ as you must know.

No GSM but you used Jay Blades (who is dyslexic) as an example and then commented about people with inadequate education being criminals(about 30% of the prison population are dyslexic). You regarded inspections as "a start" which it obviously isn't if after so many years they are still failing to educate children even in schools that are rated outstanding.

I know loads of schools where that happens sago. They arent closed down they have good ratings.

I left primary school with a reading age well above my years, beautiful handwriting and my times tables and Latin verbs imprinted on my brain.
I was a desperately unhappy child and hated education.
We had to learn because we were terrified of the alternative.
The nuns were fierce.

Our children went to wonderful and happy primary schools.
I once arrived at my sons prep school midday as he had retuned without some necessary kit.
It was snowing heavily, an embarrassed master intercepted me and apologised profusely, they had suspended learning, handed out trays from the refectory and taken them all sledging in PE kit.
Ofsted would have closed them down!!!!

I understand that trisher. But not all children with inadequate reading skills have ‘learning difficulties’ as you must know.

Germanshepherdsmum

It’s a good start though isn’t it? Too many children are leaving primary school with inadequate reading skills for example. Jay Blades may have been able to make something of his life without being able to read, but that was because he was rescued from a life of drug dealing and petty crime - which is what so many young people with an inadequate education fall into.

The idea that a schools Ofsted rating has anything at all to do with children with difficulties actually learning to read is not supportable. My dyslexic DS attended a school rated as outstanding, he still left unable to read, and he was constatnly criticised for his lack of ability.

Josieann

*Lucca*, you wanted to primarily raise the question of the timing of current inspections in your OP, and I believe your comment may have been overlooked.
Inspections were of course suspended during covid and there is now the inevitable backlog. My DH had one lined up for the week of the first lockdown, and a couple in the following weeks. The Inspectors are playing catch up with lots of those. So most of the schools were pretty much preparing for the visits two years ago! Other than a quick ask as to how things went during lockdown, that period is not inspected in any depth. However, areas like IT, preparation and organisation, and general communication with parents might actually have greatly improved and receive great praise in current inspections.
It is unfortunate the stress any inspection brings and I can sympathise. I wish anyone in teaching or with offspring in teaching all the best.

I thought you wrote that your DH works for the ISI, not Ofsted.

Josieann

trisher in the 60's they were called "Educational Advisors" and that was their job.
You can't blame inspectors that the job has now changed beyond recognition.
FWIW my DH is currently not staying in a posh hotel as you say, and lunch is a quick sandwich, and writing up until 10 pm.
I agree Hetty58 that the inspection is merely a snapshot on that day or so. Impossible to get the whole picture.

They were actually HMIs Josieann - Her Majesty's Inspectorate. www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/hmi/1970-today-and-tomorrow.html
Educational Advisors were employed by the local authority to run courses and offer advice but they were seperate and additional to National and Local Inspectors.
Your DH may not stay in posh hotels I've met quite a few inspectors who do. I always thought how much better education would be if the money they cost was ploughed into schools and staff.
The advantage of HMIs is that they had a group of assigned schools and they built up relationships to support teachers and develop good practice.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

It’s a good start though isn’t it? Too many children are leaving primary school with inadequate reading skills for example. Jay Blades may have been able to make something of his life without being able to read, but that was because he was rescued from a life of drug dealing and petty crime - which is what so many young people with an inadequate education fall into.

But then we get down to the real question, "Should everything be based on qualifications and academic achievement?" Nope.

I totally agree Galaxy. No good going to a nice happy little school that doesn’t equip you with the qualifications to get somewhere in life. You won’t get anywhere reflecting on your happy school days.

Josieann You obviously understand having been in the situation.
The school was so happy, the children well rounded and confident having had such a good primary foundation.

I was a school governer years ago and have worked in the state system so I have a reasonable understanding of Ofsted and it’s aims.
The report was unfair.

Sorry sago but that sounds like a range of complex problems which are much broader than the head doing too much teaching.
I think minimising the importance of educational qualifications is generally only done by those who can afford to do that. For many children they are a lifeline to escape their situation.

I can't spell either inspections not inpsections!

I agree with everything you write Luckygirl3.

Except that there are also very stringent inpsections in independent schools along very much the same lines as in state schools. So the all encompassing public school educational models dig was a bit unnecessary. Isn't it the fact that these politicians are not educationalists themselves and therefore unqualified, wherever they might have been educated?

trisher

Having worked in many different schools over the years I've heard so many stories about ofsted inspections, what was done to bend the rules and get the school through, schools that failed on single issues, schools which manged to get outstanding although there were many rumours circulating about their inadequacies, it's difficult to have any faith in them.
There seems to be an illusion that before Ofsted there was no support or inspections in schools. Of course there was, but it was done in the spirit of encouraging and helping teachers to do their jobs and to improve their practice. It was supportive and informative. Local inspectors were not people who zoomed in, ticked boxes, stayed in a posh hotel and then left, they were locally employed and maintained contacts with the schools in their area.

I so agree - the whole thrust of an OfSted inspector's role is to fly in, make judgements and vanish over the horizon. The unrelenting collecting of stats by schools is there to feed the inspectors. When there were local supportive inspections, the inspector knew the area, the school and its surroundings, and was backed up by resources that could be used to improve the school: courses for teachers and for governors, making links with other supportive schools for CPD etc. They had a positive role. This cannot be said for OfSted.

Hetty58 - I do not think parents are mow particularly swayed by the OfSted grades - OfSted has been around long enough now for parents to have sussed that it does not measure the things that they want for their children.

Germanshepherdsmum - results on a CV are only a tiny aspect of the picture. Employers too have got wise to what is going on - they know that these pieces of paper are only part of the picture. I have seen young people who have landed excellent worthwhile jobs, not because of the qualifications they had/or did not have, but because they are sensible, good communicators and honest and hard-working.

The education system is geared towards teaching what OfSted wants them to teach, rather than providing an enriching curriculum that turns out young people with confidence and social skills. Children who lag behind the set targets know that they are seen as also-rans. It would be so much better if schools were left some freedom to nurture these students and to build on their qualities, so that they become confident in what they can do.

We have so many young people needing mental health services now - services that are virtually non-existent. They have left the school system feeling worthless, in spite of teachers' best efforts. Better to have confidence in oneself as you really are, rather than collect GCSEs like charms on a bracelet.

The inspection system is no longer about supporting schools to do better; it is a stranglehold on the whole curriculum, a burden to teachers and a barrier to young people's chances in life and mental and emotional well-being.

It arises from politicians who have no educational experience, but feel it is fine to micro-manage curricula, and to impose their public school educational models on all children, when this is neither desirable nor practical.

Taken from the local paper, the head cannot afford to run the school and not teach, the school was slammed by ousted.

I'm not laughing at you Sago because I know it is a typo, but ousted should be the new word for OFSTED!

So it goes much deeper than you originally said and doesn’t sound remotely satisfactory.

Sago been there, done every job in the book (including cleaning the toilets) as the school's sole proprietor, no governing body. My heart goes out to that Head. I could not afford to run the school and not teach a full timetable, along with running 3 after school clubs. But every child was happy, well educated, well rounded and successful in their futures. Lovely supportive parents too.
My strategy was to get out and move to France when I saw this coming! I would not have survived.

Well I hope today’s Ofsted Inspectors have relevant qualifications and experience for the area they are inspecting.
That was a chief complaint in the past. They actually knew nothing except their own ideas based on childhood.

I was in a school where the teaching of French to a group of children was criticised. What the Inspector actually observed was a language assistant explaining a story in Gujarati to a group of children of non-English speaking children.

She had no knowledge or experience of schools where that might be a part of daily life.

In spite of explaining to her the reference to the “French lesson” was in the draft report.